People with disabilities, special needs, or limited use of their hands often cannot tie shoes with conventional laces. This includes people with neuromuscular disorders, one arm, one hand, missing fingers, arthritis, and injured or broken hands or arms. Tying shoelaces requires manual dexterity, nimble fingers, and hand-eye coordination.
Many types and styles of shoes are only available with laces. These include shoes designed for a particular purpose or need, such as work boots, hiking boots, running shoes, orthopedic shoes, recreational equipment, and more. Such specialty shoes are difficult for some people to wear without assistance.
Shoes with hook-and-loop fasteners, or Velcro, are easier to fasten and unfasten, but often suffer from significant drawbacks. Traditionally, manufacturers offer shoes with hook-and-loop fasteners in a limited number of styles, sizes, colors, and widths, and many models are only made for children. Furthermore, people suffering from temporary disabilities, such as those due to injury, often cannot afford to purchase expensive shoes with alternative fasteners for short-term use.
People with special needs would benefit from devices that allow them to wear the wide variety of shoes that are currently only manufactured for use with shoelaces. Traditional shoelace replacement systems are not designed to be easily installed on or removed from a shoe by a person with limited dexterity without assistance.